This session is part of the HESPA Showcasing Good Practice Week 2026. The aim of this week is to provide a space for our members to share with each other the work they have done which they feel has been a particular success (or which they feel they learnt something valuable from), and to celebrate and promote the hard work of planners in the HE sector.
Synopsis:
In a sector awash with data, insights and market-led information, choosing a strategy to steer Portfolio direction under the umbrella of your HEI’s ambitions can be complex; compounded by strong headwinds, financial pressures, recruitment challenges and structural difficulties, setting a new or revised direction can be daunting.
At Falmouth University, we’ve continued to review our existing portfolio and used those outputs to generate our future direction; we have created a unique methodology to harbour large swathes of internal and external data relevant to us and the overall HE marketplace to swiftly pinpoint our strengths and weaknesses. Our whole Portfolio has been scrutinised empirically using datasets such as NSS, GOS Retention and Enrolment levels (plus, many more) and, plotted dynamically using our own index methodology; this energises each Faculty/ Subject and Course to understand the correlation between each metric, the causal relationship between them and, trending forwards, the most likely successful direction for the future.
This has generated a unique ‘rearward’ facing lens which pivots quickly into a ‘future-gazing’ tool; it is accurate, iterative and, in context of the needs of the HEI because, it relies on internally generated data pitted against external, open-source information.
This session covers the data types we use why, how we employ the information and rationalise to make it digestible and, how this method, in context is iterative and relevant to your specific institution; at pace, the internal data we carry and external data we are exposed to can be energised into meaningful, value-led outcomes viable at senior-strategic level.
Speakers:
Julian Hughes, Portfolio Development Manager
Prof. Russell Crawford, Deputy Vice-Chancellor
from Falmouth University
Tagged : Free Event, Strategy Development and Implementation
Type : Meeting
